Closed It's Your Auntie's Birthday

[Eluned Strangewayes]

Ned arrived at Ten's house and thumped on the door, sweaty, panting, but still bouncing with the excitement of a springer spaniel puppy. In her hand she clutched a folded letter that bore signs of having been yanked out of its envelope very forcefully and read a dozen times; the edges were crumpled and a number of greasy finger marks decorated the corners. Where was Ten? Surely she hadn't forgotten it was Ned's birthday; they'd spent most of the evening before talking about it.

Lifting the letterbox flap, Ned peered down the hallway inside. "TEN! WAKE UP!" she called. There couldn't be any other explanation; Ten had overslept. Admittedly, it was six-thirty in the morning, but Ned felt wide awake, and soon so would everybody else in the Layton-King household.

 

[Felix Layton-King]

It wasn't exactly a secret so much as nobody noticed, but Felix often didn't go to sleep at night and instead preferred to take naps throughout the day. Instead, his nights were spent watching the films that his moms old cousin was sending him; each week a new set of films, and Felix loved nothing more than getting through them while all the adults in the house were sleeping and much too busy to worry about whether they were appropriate for him or not.

He slipped off the couch in the living room after rubbing his eyes so hard he was starting to see spots, the glare from the last film that had just resolved still burning into his sleepy eyes. Taking small steps throughout the house, he knew it would be time to retire before anyone realized he'd been up for the fourth night that week (although truth be told even if they did, he doubted anything would come of it) and was headed towards the bottom of the stairs when he heard a screech coming from the front door. Startled and suddenly believing that the creature in his films was about to burst in on him, his legs weakened and he dropped to the floor. "Loon head?" he called out nervously after a few seconds assessing the figure at the door. Felix didn't know why Loony wanted to be here so early in the morning, but she seemed a bit desperate. Picking himself up off the floor and shuffling across to the door, he peered back out the letterbox to her. "What do you want?" Maybe if it was something really serious, she'd be glad that he was still awake.

 

[Eluned Strangewayes]

Ugh, what was Felix doing awake? Ned almost corrected him - it was El-loon-head - but decided it was a waste of breath. "Where's Ten?" she said, resting her brow on the letterbox flap to stare Felix directly in the eyes. "She's expecting me. Go and wake her up. Or let me in." Ned would happily wake Ten up herself, if necessary.

 

[Felix Layton-King]

Loony was so bossy, but that was nothing new. "Hmm," Felix didn't doubt that his sister was waiting for her, but that didn't mean Felix had to just make things easy for her. "How do I know you're not just going to wake up dad too?" he asked, staring back at her through the letterbox.

 

[Eluned Strangewayes]

"Felix, pleaaase," Ned whined. She didn't have time to be crouched on Ten's doorstep, arguing with her little brother. "I just want to talk to Ten. It's important - look." She withdrew from the aperture just enough to slide her invitation letter through it, holding on lightly from the other side. "See? I'm going to Hogwarts!"

 

[Felix Layton-King]

Felix stood and waited patiently to see what Loony was going to try and convince him with next time. He didn't expect however to have a letter thrust towards his eye balls, and he backed away from the letterbox in time to see the distinctive mark of Hogwarts on the cream card. He reached his hand out quickly, plucking it from her fingertips. "Woah, is this real?" he asked, wondering whether she would try to fake it to get into Hogwarts. Yes, yes she probably would.

 

[Eluned Strangewayes]

One moment, Eluned was holding onto the letter, the next it had disappeared through the flap. "Hey!" she said, pushing her hand through after it, but her wiggling fingers only caught air. "Of course it's real. Give it back - Felix, that's mine." After a moment she pulled out her hand and put her eyes back up to the hole. "Felix. I am your auntie. Give that back right now or I'll tell your daddy you were rude to me. What would he say, hm?"

 

[Felix Layton-King]

"He wouldn't believe you even if you did," Felix was the most overlooked child he knew. Most other kids parents would scold them or discipline them, but as far as he was concerned, Ten was paving the way for him only an older sibling could, regardless of whether or not it was intentional. Sure Ten could be loud and annoying, but it meant that Felix got away with a lot. Peeling the letter open in his hands he studied the words, ignoring Loony's flailing hands. "Hah, you get to have a toad if you want one," he said out loud, thinking how disgusting that would be if it got its wet little paws in your bed.

 

[Eluned Strangewayes]

Though Ned was loathe to admit it, Felix was probably right. She had made up so many unlikely stories that nobody ever believed her when she was telling the truth. Besides, Felix had that angelic sort of face that could get away with murder. Eluned could have used one of those herself. "Felix, I'm going to cry," she said. "I'm crying, look. Come on - I'll let you have some of my birthday cake if you let me in. It's super moist. Please?"

 

[Felix Layton-King]

Felix looked up to the letterbox, pretty convinced that Loony would be faking it if she were to say she's starting to cry, but feeling the need to check just in case. The baker in him perked up at the idea of cake though, dammit, his auntie knew how to get what she wanted. "Fine, but only if it's a big bit," he stated, before turning on his dirty socked heel and headed upstairs to find his sister. He didn't really care if he got any cake really, he just liked winding them up when he could.

 

[Eluned Strangewayes]

"NoFelixgivemetheletter!" said Ned, thrusting a sad hand through the letterbox. Bugger - he was going to show Ten before she had a chance to! The stupid little rugrat would be lucky to get a few crumbs of plain sponge after this.

 

[Amortentia Layton-King]

Ten had stirred in her sleep when she'd heard her name screamed from downstairs. Part of her thought it was in her dreams, but as she lay there with her eyes closed, half tempted to drown out the voices with a pillow, she was increasingly convinced there really was someone downstairs. She opened her eyes to see the sun had barely made an appearance yet too, and pulling herself out of bed she wandered over to her bedroom window over the front of the house. Their house had a large porch covering the front door, so while Ten couldn't see who was there, she could certainly open her window to try and hear better.

Ten had made out a few words such as Felix, Daddy and Cake by the time she decided she'd try and get closer to the conversation. Despite her shirt and pajama shorts, she lifted herself out of her bedroom window, careful not to get any of her hair caught in the window mechanisms, and shuffled her way bare foot across the roof of the porch, until she reached the edge. She lay down, slowly and gently (or at least as she could manage) until only her head and her shoulders were over the edge, and hanging her head upside down she got a peep at the back of their visitor. "Why didn't you just open it?" Ten asked, wondering why Ned was spending so much time arguing with Felix given the door was already unlocked.

 

[Eluned Strangewayes]

Was that Ten? Where was her voice coming from? Eluned turn around, and looked up. A sheet of bright red hair dangled from the porch roof, giving the impression the eaves were on fire. "What?" said Ned. She had understood the words perfectly well, but the situation was taking a little longer to process. She turned back to the door and tried the handle. It turned freely. She put her hands on her hips. "Amortentia Layton-King - if the door's open, why did you climb out of the window? And you overslept!" She tapped her imaginary watch. "It's my birthday. Get down. We have a mission, and it involves giving your brother a wedgie until he gives me my Hogwarts letter back."

 

[Amortentia Layton-King]

It wasn't especially comfortable to hang upside down, but now that Ten knew there wasn't an intruder at the door, she thought it would probably be okay if she came down. Almost as quickly as Ned spotted her, she leant out of view, swung her legs over the edge and propelled herself off, dangling by her hands. The drop was almost as twice as tall as she was, but at ten years old, ten was quite springy. She released her hands, bending her knees as she landed on the grass to the side of the path that lead the way up to the front door, before straightening herself off.

It was never a good sign when Ned used her full name; no one did that. "Because I thought you were an intruder." she explained, walking up to meet Ned on the porch and taking in her recount of what had happened. Of course she'd remembered it was her birthday, but she hadn't expected to be awake quite so early. "Why has he got your letter?" she asked, moving past the brunette and into the home, leaving it open behind her. Honestly she just wanted to see the letter for herself in the flesh. When Asphodel, Wendall, Leda and anyone else in their family got theirs, Ten hadn't even been born yet.

 

[Eluned Strangewayes]

"Why would an intruder knock?" Ned pointed out, following Ten into the house. She liked Ten's house. In some ways, it was similar to her own: modern, cosy, often cluttered. The difference was that Ten's clutter looked as if it was supposed to be there, a feature of the room instead of the result of an explosion. Ned had learned the hard way not to touch any of the potted plants, however, no matter how cute and fuzzy some of them looked. "Well, he wouldn't let me in - very rude, by the way - so I was showing him through the letterbox, and he snatched it. Right out of my hand. Like a dirty seagull. Where is he? FELIX!"

 

[Amortentia Layton-King]

Ten waved her hand in dismissal as Ned followed her through the house. She hadn't actually heard her knock so much as scream, and Ten knew it was always a good idea to be wary of intruders, as well as visitors to the house, to make sure that they really needed to be there. Ten had to stifle a giggle at the thought of Felix not letting her in, given that he too would have known the door was open this time. She bounded up the stairs towards her own bedroom, figuring that Felix had probably come looking for her, although by the time she got there the room was empty. "He's not in here," she stated, looking around her room all the way up to the window that was still wide open, curtains softly moving in the breeze. "Don't stand on that," Ten pointed to the floor where some vines were making their way across the doorway, and headed back out her bedroom and across the hall to find her brother. "Felix! Where are you?!" If Ten's whisper volume was anything to go by, her shouting was bound to have to done the trick.

 

[Felix Layton-King]

After Felix had disappeared with the letter, he'd made a B-line straight for his sisters room. Upon finding however that it was empty and the window was wide open, he immediately dropped all thoughts of his mission to prank his auntie and headed towards his father, suddenly overcome with nervous worry, tears quickly beginning to prick at his eyes. If Ten wasn't in her room, and Felix hadn't seen her leave out the front door, he could only assume that she'd run away, which would have been very dangerous.

A few moments later he reemerged from his fathers bedroom, tears down his cheeks and his father not too far behind him, having reporting his missing sibling to the proper adult figure. He was just in time to come face to face with Ten and Loony, and quickly wiped his cheeks with his sleeve. "They're both here," he said quietly and foolishly. Maybe he'd just missed them altogether?

 

[Eluned Strangewayes]

Every Felix within half a mile had just jolted awake in bed. Ned hopped skilfully over the creeping vines and out onto the landing, where they met all of a sudden with the Felix they had been looking for. His face was damp with tears, and in the room behind him, someone was stirring. Oh, no - he must have heard Ned talking about the wedgie and gone running to his dad. "Felix! There you are," she said, suddenly all smiles and rainbows. "Morning!" She waved cheerfully through the door, then linked her arm into Felix's and tugged him towards Ten's bedroom.

 

[Amortentia Layton-King]

Ten didn't need her dad getting involved. Despite her ability to talk her way out of most situations, they had a job to do. She linked arms with her brothers empty hand and the trio made their way back to Ten's bedroom, once again careful not to step on the vines. "What did you do with it?" she asked him finally when they reached the room. It wasn't obvious, there were too many things scattered around the room for it to jump out at them. Her eyes darted around the room as she didn't wait for an answer. She needed to see if the letter was real.

 

[Felix Layton-King]

Felix was more or less thrust towards his sisters bedroom, and he felt for a moment that maybe it would mean they wanted to hang out with him. His hopes soon diminished however when he realized he was just there for questioning. "The letter?" he asked, just in case she happened to be talking about something that wasn't quite as important. Honestly he didn't really know what he'd done with it, in the commotion of thinking Ten was lost, he must have put it down somewhere. "It's probably not far. It's not like we have a cat or anything," he said, side eyeing Loony to see what she'd do if she thought Nugget still lived here.

 

[Eluned Strangewayes]

Ned was beginning to lose patience. It was her birthday morning, nobody had wished her a happy birthday, and Ten's little brother had gone and lost her Hogwarts acceptance letter. "Where is it?" she demanded again. "Stop playing games now, Felix. I need that letter. Give it." She held out her hand, waiting for him to produce it from inside whichever pocket he'd hidden it. "Give. Now."

 

[Amortentia Layton-King]

It did look as though Felix was just playing games with them as he joked that a cat might have run off with it. "What if Ned can't get in to school without that letter? You'll feel bad for stealing it then!" she added, hoping that indeed Felix would be able to produce it soon. She could feel Ned's face starting to get warmer from here.

 

[Felix Layton-King]

Felix would feel a bit guilty if Loony couldn't go to Hogwarts because of him. "I don't have it! And I didn't steal it, she gave it to me," Felix trailed off, although it was true. Loony had posted it to him through the letterbox and if she didn't want him to have something that was so important, well then she shouldn't have used it as a bargaining tool. "Can you just magic it over?" She had her letter now, she was a student.

 

[Eluned Strangewayes]

As much as Ned appreciate Ten's support, she somehow doubted Felix had the capacity to feel bad about being a snotty little brat. "I did not," she said. "I was showing you, and you stole it. And you can't do magic outside of Hogwarts, it's against the rules." Equally unbelievable was the idea that Eluned gave a flying rat's bum about the rules, but it sounded better than admitting she didn't know any spells yet. A square of cream in her peripheral vision suddenly caught her attention, and she lunged towards the windowsill for her letter. It had seen better days, though probably not very many of them. "Yes! I've got it! Now get out," she said, giving Felix a literal push in the right direction.

 

[Felix Layton-King]

Felix didn't get angry very often. People like Loony often put words in his mouth and he didn't have the volume like Ten to argue about it. As his auntie spotted the cream envelope and grabbed it, he felt a little relieved that he wasn't going to get spanked for it this time. He was about to make a dart for the door, when he felt the push behind him, as though Felix leaving on his own wasn't a good idea. He stepped on the vines across the doorway, his socks squishing into the plant, and suddenly the plant was hissing and writhing underneath his weight. It felt like he'd stepped on a worm (or at least, what he could only assume a worm would feel like if it could withstand his weight) and he hopped from foot to foot, treading on the leaves and vines as both child and plant tried to move out of one anothers way.